Robert Redford

Robert Redford's all-American blond good looks and subtle, sardonic sense of humor made him one of the most popular leading men of the late 1960s into the 1970s in features like "Butch Cassidy and the...
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Robert Redford is in talks to portray late evangelical minister Oral Roberts in Jonathan Demme's new movie Come Sunday. The Hunger Games star Jeffrey Wright is also close to signing on as controversial Oklahoma minister Carlton Pearson, who upset followers by insisting hell didn't exist. Roberts became Pearson's mentor as he pieced his life back together.

Fuse TV
Billy Eichner, the incurably loud host of Billy on the Street, is starring in his own scripted comedy on the USA network (via The Hollywood Reporter). The show, titled Difficult People (produced by Amy Peohler), will star Eichner and longtime writing partner Julie Klausner as two frustrated comedians living in New York who come to hate everything around them, except each other.
We've long hoped that the impeccably talented Billy Eichner would get his own starring role. Some might say that his Billy Eichner is a one trick pony, but that would be denying his incredible talents. As you should already know, Eichner is the Sir Laurence Olivier of accosting strangers on busy Manhattan avenues. Call it street theater if you will, with the packed grids of New York City serving as his stage. The actor has an incredible amount of range and depth in his work. He's a master class of subtlety, grace, and screaming. We've collected several clips that show Eichner in his element, finding and exploiting the finest nuances of acting, and blowing out the tri-state area's collective eardrum.
Here, Eichner displays subtle feelings of despair when bellowing about Disney's mistreatment of Ratatouille:
Here, Eichner accesses his deep vulnerability when screaming at New Yorkers about Paul Rudd:
Here, Eichner channels the quiet intensity of Robert Redford as he yells why Barry's speed drawing looks like "Noodle Hitler":
This clip featuring Amy Poehler exhibits Eichner's debilitating fears about the commercialization of Christmas:
Here, Billy intellectually ruminates on race relations in America by demanding that people name three white women:
Finally, Bill Eichner show strength and perseverance while screaming about the evils of Rachael Ray:
See? We're gearing up for some quality TV.
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Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Matthew Mcconaughey and Pharrell Williams have been named among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
The Crazy in Love superstar graces the main cover of the publication's annual Time 100 edition, while other portraits feature Robert Redford and Brooklyn Nets star Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly-gay professional basketball player.
Praising Beyonce for juggling her hugely successful career with motherhood and her other business ventures, Facebook.com chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg writes in the magazine, "She's the boss. Beyonce doesn't just sit at the table. She builds a better one... "Her secret: hard work, honesty and authenticity. And her answer to the question, 'What would you do if you weren't afraid?' appears to be 'Watch me. I'm about to do it.' Then she adds, 'You can, too.'" The singer is one of a record 41 women featured on the 2014 list, which also includes 21-year-old Cyrus, actresses Kerry Washington, Amy Adams and Robin Wright and country star Carrie Underwood.
Other celebrities to make the cut include Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, while Pope Francis, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have also been listed.

Oscar winner Jeremy Irons will be honoured with the Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival in California. The actor will receive the honour at a gala on 1 May (14). Previous recipients of the Film Society's Peter J. Owens Award include Harrison Ford, Terence Stamp, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Robin Williams and Kevin Spacey.

Warner Bros.
Maybe 2015 will finally be Leonardo DiCaprio's year (we know, we say that every year, but here's hoping). In addition to reuniting with Jonah Hill to star in The Ballad of Richard Jewel, Deadline reports that the Oscar nominee has signed on to star in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's adaptation of The Revenant, which is slated to be released next fall. The film, based on the novel by Michael Punke, will see DiCaprio play Hugh Glass, a 19th century fur trapper who is mauled by a bear and then robbed and left for dead by some of his cohorts. However, Glass survives both attacks and embarks on a journey to enact revenge on the people who betrayed him. The Revenant is being described as a gritty action thriller, which makes it an unusual choice for both DiCaprio and Inarritu, as both are fixtures on the awards circuit, and tend to stay away from the more stereotypical action films.
While DiCaprio has made a few action films and thrillers over the course of his career — most notably The Departed and Shutter Island with longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese — he tends to stick with grander, more awards-friendly fare, and the few action films he has made heavily feature a psychological element, as those seem to be the kind of thrillers that the Academy likes best. And while Babel had some thrilling, action-heavy moments in it, Inarritu is still primarily known for his work with serious, slightly cerebral films, which is why neither of them seem to be the first choice for a film that sounds like a perfect opportunity for Liam Neeson to break out his most threatening growl.
The most likely explanation for DiCaprio and Inarritu's involvement is that the film has a great screenplay that attracted both of them to the project, but it also seems as if the Academy's attitude towards action films are shifting, which may have given them the incentive to sign on to a big-budget thriller. The big winner at this year's Oscars was Gravity, a sci-fi survival film that, thanks in part to Alfonso Cuaron's direction and a couple of A-List actors, was both critically-acclaimed and a major box office success. All Is Lost, a more artistic take on the typical survival narrative also did well this year. Although it missed out on the Oscars, it still received a great deal of attention and acclaim. Plus, there's also the fact that the current crop of action stars are older men with established careers — led, of course, by Neeson, himself an Oscar nominee — and all of these factors seem to signal a shift in the Academy's perspective.
Survival stories like the one at the center of The Revenant have a strong, emotional thread to connect all the action sequences, as well as the opportunity for character development, and the chance for an actor to transform himself for the role. Therefore, it's not a big surprise that more acclaimed actors and directors are exploring the genre, as it allows them to make a dark, emotional or inspiring film while also differentiating their project from the long line of sentimental, Oscar-baiting films that hit theaters every fall. For Oscar fixtures like DiCaprio, it also gives them the opportunity to step into a role that's different than the ones that have come before it. His most memorable roles are always the ones that show a different side of him, whether that side is a drug-fueled criminal, a sadistic plantation owner or a lovesick teenager, and since Hugh Glass is a completely new kind of character for him, we wouldn't be surprised if he quickly joined the roster of iconic DiCaprio roles.
In addition, well-respected filmmakers like DiCaprio and Inarritu lend the movie a much-needed air of gravitas, which will help convince audiences and Academy members alike to give The Revenant a chance instead of dismissing it outright. Cuaron had already earned a great deal of critical acclaim over the course of his career, and that likely played a large role in helping Oscar voters take the film seriously as an awards contender, rather than ignoring a great film on the basis of its genre. Similarly, All Is Lost benefited from an Oscar-winning writer and a star turn by Robert Redford, both of which helped draw attention to the movie so that it didn't get completely lost in the awards season shuffle. Having both DiCaprio and Inarritu on board helps The Revenant enter the Oscar conversation even before it starts filming, and that kind of buzz could help people see it as more than just another action film.
The A-List team behind The Revenant seems to signal that the trend of high-brow action films is likely to stick around, and it might be just what the Academy needs to change the way it looks at genre films. Besides, a gritty action thriller might just be what DiCaprio has needed all along.
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Robert Redford's new TV series about the Wild West has been picked up by bosses at the Discovery Channel. Redford's The West will span 40 years between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, and it will feature studies on characters like Jesse James and Buffalo Bill.

"I think this is the best one so far because... this one actually has a story... It's more than bad guys punching good guys and good guys punching bad guys; there's a big a** mystery going on in here and I still haven't figured out how they got Robert Redford to do this movie." Samuel L. Jackson agrees with critics that the Captain America sequel is the best Marvel Studios movie to date.

Marvel Studios
Good morning, friends of Uncle Sam! Say, do you want to be like Captain America? Young Steve Rogers was nothing but a scrawny Brooklyn do-nothing, but then our brightest scientific minds injected the kid with an experimental drug called the Super Soldier Serum. Miraculously, the cocktail of mercury, sulfur, and other useful chemicals turned little Steve into a gilded symbol of American might and vigor: Captain America. Boy! Look at those muscles. He’s like a steak- and corn-fed American Adonis.
Even though you tiny patriots at home might not have pure 1940s scientific knowhow coursing though your veins, you have something even more important flowing through your ventricles. America! And blind nationalistic pride can shield you from any foreigner’s bullet. Even if you’re a scrawny bookworm, or a plain no-talent dame without any suitors, you can be just like Cap with a little bit of effort! Just take a look at the daily life of Captain America. Live like him, and you can be our next super human weapon against the ever-present communist threat.
5:00 AM: Every day, Steve Rogers wakes up at the crack of dawn.
6:00 AM: Rogers then runs a light half-marathon before breakfast.
8:00 AM: But wait! Rogers learns that the dastardly villain Crossbones has just robbed a bank. Go get him, Cap! Give him a good socking!
9:00 AM: After handing over Crossbones to the local authorities, Cap eats some breakfast. It’s a heaping plate of steak and eggs for this hardworking superhero.
10:00 AM: After basically eating an entire cow, Rogers continues his morning workout. Tractors aren’t going to lift themselves you know.
12:00 PM: Next, it’s time for Rogers to head into work. Steve dons the stars and stripes and instantly becomes Captain America, the upholder of truth, justice, and the American way (Superman doesn't exist in the Marvel reality, so that's not trademarked yet!). Captain America heads to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. It’s here that Cap works with S.H.I.E.L.D. to look into your email and phone records in order to learn every aspect of your lives. For your safety, of course!
2:00 PM: Out on his lunchtime jog, Captain America saves a kitty from a tree for a little girl. Don’t worry, little Sally, the Captain cares for every American, no matter how fuzzy.
3:00 PM: In the S.H.I.E.L.D. break room, Falcon tries to explain to Cap the difference between Blu-ray and DVD. Captain America settles for old Howdy Doody reruns instead. Simplicity is the American way!
4:00 PM: Oh no! the cosmic menace Galactus is attacking New York City. It looks like It’s time for the Avengers to ASSEMBLE.
7:00 PM: After a fierce battle, It looks like Galactus has changed his sights from New York to London. Cap will let Lieutenant Britain and the other U.K. superheroes (Aluminium Man, Pheasant-Eye, The Lummox) handle this one.
7:15 PM: London has been completely destroyed... but America is still standing as tall as ever.
8:00 PM: Whew! after a long battle, Captain America has led the Avengers to victory. Good going, fellows! ... and Black Widow, I guess.
9:00 PM: Back in his Brooklyn apartment, Captain America takes off Old Glory and becomes the mild mannered Steve Rogers once again. He heads to bed early to rest up after a long day of gallant superheroics. Get some shut-eye, Cap, you deserve it.
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Marvel Studios via Everett Collection
When Captain America returns to the big screen in The Winter Soldier, he won’t be facing off against any power-hungry aliens, super serum-enhanced evil geniuses, or Asgardian gods who weren’t hugged enough as children in order to protect the world. Instead, his primary adversary will be human: Alexander Goodwin Pierce, a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who might know more about the sudden appearance of the Winter Soldier and HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. than he lets on. Played by Robert Redford, Pierce won’t have any special powers or superhuman abilities in order to help him defeat Cap, but, from what we’ve seen of the film so far, he might not need any sci-fi or magic in order to ensure that the stakes of the film are still high.
Most of the villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have had some kind of special power or ability, whether physical or mental. It’s those powers that have made them such a major threat to global security and the innocent lives of the people of Earth. Of course, there’s also the fact that without those super powers, the heroes of the films wouldn’t have much of a challenge in defeating the villains, and without a challenge, there would be no film.
However, the lack of powers doesn’t make things any easier in The Winter Soldier, as Pierce’s humanity makes him the perfect villain for Cap. Since his inception, Captain America’s defining characteristic has been his unwavering devotion to his country and the people who inhabit it. He lives by the idea that justice is a black and white concept, in which people can easily be categorized into “good guys” and “bad guys.” While those traits may have made him the perfect soldier during the tumult of the 1940s, nowadays people no longer feel inspired by that kind patriotism and lack of suspicion.
One of Cap’s main story arcs in the cinematic universe has been his adjustment to modern day American after spending seventy years frozen in a block of ice. In fact, much of The Winter Soldier deals with the culture shock that Cap experiences living in today’s world, where the government is treated with skepticism and justice is seen in shades of grey. The film aims to show him reevaluating all of the ideals that he has used to define himself, and to see which ones no longer apply today, and the best way to force Cap to adjust his perspective is for the primary threat to American lives come from someone he believed to be on his side.
In Cap’s eyes, the government exists to care for its people. Modern society, however, doesn’t hold such a view; we’re more likely to be wary of our elected leaders, and we tend to believe that they’re more interested in protecting themselves than the country. In order for Cap to understand the modern world, he needs to let go of a lot of the ideals that the American people no longer hold, and he needs to understand that sometimes, the people he trusts most are the people he should be wary of. What makes Pierce such a great villain for Cap is the fact that his position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent forces Cap to reevaluate everything he believed to be true in order to take him down. If Pierce had powers he could use to put the American public in danger, it would it much easier for Cap to defeat him. But keeping him human makes him the same as the people that Cap strives to protect, which puts him in the uncomfortable position of having to take a new look at the way he has always seen the world.
Marvel Studios via Everett Collection
In addition, The Winter Soldier is, at its heart, a political thriller as much as it’s a superhero film. The suspense comes from watching the characters attempt to outwit and outmaneuver each other. Much of that interplay would be lost if Pierce were simply able to use his powers to take on Cap, and it would completely undermine Cap’s disillusionment with the political and military system. Pierce’s power in The Winter Soldier comes from being one step ahead of the Avengers, and having knowledge that they don’t. He doesn’t need to fight them in order to scare them, not when he can simply unravel the system that they’ve place their faith in.
And yet, even though Pierce is the perfect bad guy for this particular film, it’s hard to picture him taking a place of pride in Marvel’s gallery of villains, especially with characters like Loki and Red Skull already having made such a big impression on audiences. Without powers or plans for world domination, he doesn’t seem to fit easily into the criteria of a memorable super villain, and it’s likely that he will even be outshone by the Winter Soldier onscreen. However, the lack of powers is precisely what sets Pierce apart from his fellow evildoers. His character is grounded in reality, and doesn’t belong solely to the comic book universe. Pierce would be just as intimidating on a network political drama as he is facing off with Captain America, and even though he might not be as flashy or attention-grabbing as some of his contemporaries, it might be just what he needs in order to become a memorable Marvel villain.
After all, it’s not like a villain without superpowers can’t be intimidating. Just take a look at Batman’s gallery of rouges; there are many versions of the story where they don’t have superhuman abilities, just an overwhelming desire to watch the world burn and the kind of weaponry and underground connections to make that dream a reality. When villains like Joker are placed in a grittier, more realistic universe, they are often more terrifying than when their world is based in fantasy. There’s always the underlying fear that his reign of terror could happen in the real world at any given moment.
Captain America’s universe has always been more firmly grounded in reality than some of the other Marvel heroes, and so it would make sense, then, that his villains would also be realistic. Pierce is scary precisely because his character plays on our suspicion of the government, and our worries that the people who are meant to be looking after us are really only looking after themselves. The character plays off of real fears that we as a society have, which makes his plot just as scary and suspenseful as any other that the heroes have faced. In fact, he’s probably scarier than Loki, even without the ability to shape shift and manipulate, simply because audiences are probably less inclined to cuddle the evil out of him, the way we often are with the Trickster God. Grounding Pierce in reality makes up for his lack of superpowers, and results in a villain that is not only scary, but is also perfectly tailored to the story that The Winter Soldier is trying to tell.
Besides, Pierce doesn’t need any powers to fight Cap because he has a super soldier of his own to do his bidding and take out his enemies. If there’s one lesson that Frank Underwood has taught us, it’s that truly evil politicians never get their hands dirty.
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Marvel Studios
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is filled — and I mean jam-packed — with genre-bending, action-heavy, sportily tense and relentlessly sinuous, sky-high-concept and maniacally bonkers stuff. Polygonal mayhem that aims, and impressively so, to top the Marvel lot in ideas, deconstructing every thriller staple from government corruption to talking computers to odd couple agents gone rogue. But oddly enough, the moment in the Cap sequel that I find most arresting several weeks after seeing the film is our peaceful reunion with Steve Rogers, trotting merrily around the Washington Monument as the sun rises on our nation's capital.
The scene is shot from far overhead, a low pulse/high spirits Chris Evans reduced to a shapeless blur as he repeatedly (but politely!) laps fellow jogger and veteran Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie)... and yet it might be the closest we feel to Cap throughout the movie.
The Winter Soldier has a lot to worry about in the delivery of its content. Managing a plot as ambitious and multifaceted as its own, with themes as grand as the scope of the American mentality — as represented by Steve Rogers, raised in the good old days of gee-golly-jingoism — it doesn't always have the faculties to devote to humanizing its central troupe. Cap isn't left hollow, but his battles with the dark cloud of contemporary skepticism play more like an intriguing Socratic discussion than an emotional arc. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, a character who ran circles around her Avengers co-players in flavor, feels a bit shortchanged in that department here (in her closest thing to a starring role yet, no less).
Marvel Studios
Mackie's Falcon, a regular joe who is roped into the calamity thanks largely to his willingness to chat with a fellow runner — a rare skill, honestly — is less of a problem. He doesn't have much to do, but he does it all well enough. Dynamic though he may be, Mackie keeps things bridled as Cap's ad-hoc sidekick, playing up the along-for-the-ride shtick rather than going full (or even half) superhero. We might want more from him, knowing just how fun he can be, but it's a sating dose. The real hunger is for more in the way of Black Widow, Cap, and — perhaps most of all — the titular villain.
Still, these palpable holes pierce through a film that gets plenty right. As elegantly as Joe Johnston did the Spielberg thing back in 2011, Joe and Anthony Russo take on the ballots of post-innocence. They aren't afraid to get wild and weird, taking The Winter Soldier through valleys that feel unprecedented in superhero cinema. We're grateful for the invention here — for Robert Redford's buttoned-up Tom Clancy villain, for the directors' aggressive tunneling through a wide underworld of subterranean corruption, and especially for one scene in an army bunker that amounts to the most charmingly bats**t crazy reveal in any Marvel movie yet. We might be most grateful, though, for a new take on Nick Fury; here, the franchise gives Samuel L. Jackson his best material by a mile.
But in the absence of definitive work done in our heroing couple, a pair rich in fibers but relegated to broad strokes and easy quips in this turn, most of it amounts to a fairly good spy thriller, not an ace-in-the-whole neo-superhero masterpiece... which, justly or otherwise, is what we've come to expect and demand from these things.
3/5
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Starred opposite Barbra Streisand in romantic drama "The Way We Were," directed by Sydney Pollack

Starred as F. Scott Fitzgerald's anti-hero Jay Gatsby in lavish film remake "The Great Gatsby"

Again placed 5th in annual exhibitors' box office poll

Founded Sundance Institute and its film and theater development lab

Co-starred with Brad Pitt in "Spy Game"

Reteamed with Natalie Wood in "This Property Is Condemned," directed by Sydney Pollack

Starred in "Indecent Proposal" as a wealthy man who offers $1 million to a couple (Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson) for one night with the wife

Summary

Robert Redford's all-American blond good looks and subtle, sardonic sense of humor made him one of the most popular leading men of the late 1960s into the 1970s in features like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), "The Sting" (1973) and "All the President's Men" (1976). Along with his peers Warren Beatty and Paul Newman, he was one of the rare movie icons who could balance being both a respected actor as well as undeniable sex symbol - seen most effectively with his heartfelt turn in "The Way We Were" (1973) - a timeless romance which caused many a female heart to flutter through the years. Growing into his age gracefully, he branched out, wisely parlaying his acting fame into an Oscar-winning career as a director, and becoming a patron saint of sorts to independent filmmakers by establishing the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute, as well as numerous critically acclaimed projects that supported original moviemaking outside the Hollywood system.

Born May 5, 1962; mother, Lola Jean Redford; spoke out in favor of organ donations as he underwent two liver transplants in 1993; founded the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness in 1995; married in 1988

Martha Redford

Mother

Born in April 1914; Died on May 2, 1955, the year Robert graduated high school

Shauna Redford

Daughter

Born Nov. 15, 1960; mother, Lola Jean Redford; Married Eric Schlosser Oct. 5, 1985 in Provo, UT; First child born in January 1991, making Redford a grandfather for the first time

Scott Redford

Son

Born and died of infant crib syndrome in 1959; mother, Lola Jean Redford

William Redford

Half-Brother

Born in June 1956

Dylan Redford

Grandson

Born in 1991; son of Jamie Redford and Kyle Smith

Lena Redford

Granddaughter

Born in 1996; daughter of Jamie Redford and Kyle Smith

Anna Schlosser

Granddaughter

Born in January 1991; daughter of Shauna Redford and Eric Schlosser

Conor Schlosser

Grandson

Born July, 29 1992: son of Shauna Redford and Eric Schlosser

Sibylle Szaggars

Wife

Together since 1996; Announced engagement in May 2008 ; Married July 11, 2009 in Hamburg, Germany

Married Sept. 12, 1958; Van Wagenen dropped out of college to marry Redford; Divorced in 1985

Education

Name

Pratt Institute

University of Colorado

American Academy of Dramatic Arts

Notes

Redford received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree from the University of Colorado in 1987.

"Bob is a minimalist, he withholds, he never seduces his audience but makes them come to him." – director Sydney Pollack on Redford to The Los Angeles Times Dec. 9, 1990

Redford on his transition from sports to art while in college: "It had to do with defining a lot of emotional stuff that was never formed right. For some people it's therapy. Maybe it is for all of us. For me it was anger and finding a place to put my disappointment and frustration with a lot of things. I was a mess. I was somewhat in trouble socially. I lost my (basketball) scholarship pretty quick after I discovered drinking. When I left (college) and got into art, that got me out...finding my place in the world had a lot to do with acting." – quoted in The Los Angeles Times Dec. 9, 1990

"Hollywood is a formula industry. It's all about business and profit, and that's why they're always looking at a formula for guaranteed success. You can't make $100 million on a small black-and-white love story or anything that tells about our lives and the diversity out there." – Redford quoted in USA Today, May 8, 1995

He was honored with the 1996 National Medal of Freedom from the National Endowment for the Arts.

"It's become harder and harder each year to maintain our course, because of the overpowering force – what I would call the more external factors – like celebrity, fashion, and the media's obsessions with who is there and whether people are wearing black." – Redford on Sundance indieWIRE, Jan. 26, 2001

"Everyone in Tinseltown is getting pinched, lifted and pulled. For many it's become a sick obsession. They lose some of their soul when they go under the knife and end up looking body snatched. People should preserve their time in history. I'm happy to make the best of what I've got." – Redford to Us, January 2002

"Celebrity is a big part of the American social system. I'm certainly grateful for what it's done for me, but I do think that celebrity is overdone in our society. I think it's got a dangerous side to it. I think that people should be paying a lot more attention to other issues, rather than who's the top 10 this or...who's the sexiest or the most beautiful." – Redford to NPR, Sept. 9, 2003

"It’s not that I have a short attention span but I do have a low boredom threshold. For me, the joy of acting was in the spontaneity of expressing yourself – and being part of what makes a play ‘happen’ is pretty exciting – but after nine months of doing the same thing every night…you just want it to move to a new place." – Redford to London Times, November 2007

"I gave up a long time ago the idea that a film can change people's lives, let alone their politics. I discovered we Americans enjoy the distraction of entertainment but aren't really interested in the deeper message." – Redford to Playboy magazine, November 2007